Just installed it on ubuntu 32-bit (apt-get install mongodb). I now have a 32-bit mongodb process running. Minus all of the noise from apt about setting up xulrunner and the 101(!!!) other dependent packages, here's the entirety of the startup messages I see:

Any app that has a warning message will fail to warn you if it's output is rerouted to a log file. This sounds more like an issue with the package maintainers not understanding the limitation and thus not putting in a warning message post install.